Why Care About Gerrymandering

Gerrymander: to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.

Sounds exciting doesn’t it, especially if you are the party in control but its counter to representative government. There are bills in both the PA House and Senate that would level the field with 101 co-sponsors. That shows some support. Our local State Rep. John Taylor is one of the co-sponsors.

For some reason, six Philadelphia lawmakers don’t seem to understand that if legislative districts were drawn less lopsided, the city would have a better chance to resolve its issues. Under the current arrangement, Harrisburg doesn’t even have to listen because legislative leaders are able to pick their voters and ensure eternal job security.

Republicans controlled the maps the last time boundaries were drawn and sketched pockets of Republican voters, which gave them 13 congressional seats to Democrats’ five. In the legislature, Republicans hold a 122-80 advantage in the House and 34-16 edge in the Senate. That’s cheating because the state has 4.2 million Democrats to 3.3 million Republicans. Democrats might have more seats if their leaders had not cut backroom deals to save their own seats.